Company<->User communication...Is it still a thing today?

@kas1e

Quote:
We consider a new texteditor gadget a high priority (because the old one is horrible and buggy), but unfortunately no-one has taken it up as a project The person closest to the job was Mark Ritter, who was considering doing it but in the end he abandoned the idea and instead started developing his editor "Struct". It's a real pity: he could have made the gadget first and then base the editor on it, much like MultiEdit is based on the existing texteditor. It would have been a 2-in-1 project benefiting everyone.

I don't know what the actual state of Struct is. Mark is currently taking a break from the Amiga because he felt burnt out from programming.

As for me, I'm not planning taking up any class project in the foreseeable future. I feel a need to work on something more substantial now.

@trixie

Quote:
That's a shame on many, many levels. Mark is a terrific guy, and an excellent developer. Workbench Explorer was a massive bit of work, and I was *really* looking forward to Struct since his demo at DevCon 2019. I'm a bit of a text editor nut, and although nothing could possibly ever beat the ISPF editor on z/OS, I do love the Amiga options. And Struct looked like something I'd use in lieu of CodeBench's editor -- which is also nice.

Anyway -- I hope to see Mark return to the scene one day. Maybe if things start moving again?

-- eliyahu

It is sad news to hear. I hope he finds motivation in future.

If there are any developers out there that wish to create a modern text editor Reaction gadget class for us, there is cash waiting for the job. Please contact me.

Quote:

thanks !

@amigakit

"If there are any developers out there that wish to create a modern text editor Reaction gadget class for us, there is cash waiting for the job. Please contact me."


Get this slogan out in the open!! We might even attract new developers.

Tweet, Post, Blog, etc ....

@amigakit

Quote:Great idea - hard to do well. We've seen so many attempts to make the perfect text editor on the Amiga, both using gadgets and creating full standalone editor programs, but so far none has IMO quite managed to hit the perfect spot in terms of usability, smooth operation, features, extensibility/configurability etc. etc. Many have been pretty good, some have probably become the favourite editor for some people.

Struct definitely looked like it could come close; still hoping it will be developed further.

Oh, and while I'm at it: Let's start by finding a good name for the new gadget which avoids having it overwrite the existing texteditor.gadget.

(And thanks to Trixie for calling his new gadget toolbar and not speedbar ).

Best regards,

Niels

@eliyahu

Quote:Yeaaahhh ... on a real 3270 with a proper clack-clack keyboard .

Is it still the same on z/OS as it was on MVS?

(Sorry for derailing ...)

Best regards,

Niels

@nbache

Quote:
ISPF has grown by leaps and bounds, but the editor has, thankfully, changed very little conceptually. But there are loads more useful macros included these days and support for more modern languages.

If you're feeling nostalgic, you can look over the current ISPF documentation (link).

-- eliyahu

@nbache

Quote:
Don't worry - I'm not an advocate of rewriting system components with same-named alternatives. As far as the Enhancer classes are concerned: there is not a single one that shares the name of an already existing system gadget.

About Enhancer updates (we probably cannot expect OS4.1 updates any time soon):

- is there a change log somewhere? I occasionally check updates and if any - and usually just install (I do have backup available 'just in case'), would be essential know if there are new features available, bug fixes or even somethign completely new...

And sorry if this is obvious and release notes are somewhere, I just couldn't find it...

@Tohe

In Updater tool there is an Information button that shows changes for the respective component

@amigakit

this is cool, thanks

As promised, Enhancer Software Core V1.1 is now released for free registration and download.

@Mattew

Cool!

But As I wrote on the beta list: if it will be not on os4depot, it will be of no big use by 3d party devs. For me it's obvious that no one will remember any page from where to download classes, taking aside issues with "you need to register, you need to create an account, blabla", like 3d party devs have nothing to do, but to remember pages where to download classes, or register on one more site.

And users of course too, will be not able easily to download it.

Add to that all issues users have from time to time to register all those accounts (and for what, to get classes which should be just placed on os4depot if authors want to make them be usable, and not forgotten in the dust ?)

So chances are low that it will be of good use, sadly, because of unnecessary complication to get those classes.

But that IMHO as a user.

AmiSphere account registration is necessary to use Updater utility. This is the best way we can serve users to get their updates of the classes in future.

@amigakit

Still, some "base" versions at least need to be on os4depot, and those ones who want updates, can register and so on (and put that info about where/how to the readme on the os4depot archives).

Imagine you download software, it wants some classes, and you need to remember some page, create some account, register, and only then download it. While it can be just a tiny good archive with only classes, without updaters and stuff.

But that again, just IMHO as of user and I can see why fewer devs will use it. But it just me.

Good that you release it anyway, let's hope I am wrong.

It is better to have one current version than old fragmented distribution of old classes across the net. AmiSphere always presents the latest version to the user with the latest bug fixes and features.

The vast majority of OS4 users now use AmiSphere for download services on a weekly basis. It has become a good and efficient way to send updates. AmiStore uses it too.

Users have one AmiSphere login account for all our services. They can set Updater to autologin without having to enter their username and password. It is saved as an AES-256 encrypted login file on their hard drives.

@Mattew
As I expected, other users start to have issues with downloading it and asking the same questions: why not put it to some file depo like Aminet/os4depot where users can easily download some "stable" version (in this case 1.1 one).

Check on amiga.org thread about.

@kas1e

He did not read the news item correctly. I can confirm that over 30 users have already registered and downloaded it so far in the last few hours it has been available.

Personally, I can't see the problem with having to download it from an A-Eon site.

It's the same way you get the SDK from Hyperion, so developers are used to this. And if they can get a permission to include it (or the necessary parts) with their product, then end users have no problems.

Best regards,

Niels